JPS60129037A - Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that employs a trapezoidal scanning method.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Conventionally, the linear scanning method has been used for abdominal diagnosis of living organisms. If an attempt was made to make it thicker, the number of transducers would increase, resulting in the disadvantage that the ultrasonic probe 20 would become larger, as shown by the broken line in FIG.

Therefore, in recent years, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus using a trapezoidal scanning type ultrasonic glove 21 has appeared, as shown by the solid line in FIG.
Even small objects can now have a fairly large field of view.

However, when attempting to construct a trapezoidal screen using a conventional device, as shown in FIG.
As shown in the figure, a combination of linear scanning and sector scanning using the ultrasonic probe 21, or near compound scanning (multi-sector scanning) (U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,462) has been considered. The scanning method had the problem that it took a long time to construct one screen, and it lacked real-time performance.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, using an ultrasonic probe 21,
A scanning method that simply combines linear scanning at the center of the scanning surface and sector scanning at both ends is also conceivable;
In the case of this scanning method, there is a problem that the scanning line density becomes non-uniform at the boundary between the linear scanning section and the sector scanning section, and the continuity of the ultrasound images deteriorates.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that can obtain ultrasonic images with excellent real-time performance and a wide field of view.

[Summary of the invention]

The outline of the present invention for achieving the above object is to include an ultrasonic probe having a plurality of transducers arranged in parallel, drive and control each transducer to transmit and receive ultrasonic waves, and transmit received echo signals. In an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that processes signals to obtain an ultrasound image on a display means, an arbitrary number of transducers among the transducers are sequentially shifted and controlled, and each transducer of an arbitrary number is controlled. This is characterized in that sector scanning is performed while linear scanning is performed by adding a predetermined amount of delay to the image data.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Examples of the present invention will be described in detail below.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention.

In the figure, reference numeral 1a denotes a storage means, which stores late signal data, driving element data and delay data for each scanning line of ultrasonic transmission and reception. The above-mentioned data in the storage means 1a are read and controlled by the transmission/reception control means 1b and transferred to each part of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

2-1 to 2-in are transmission delay units, and 3-1 to 3-yn.

is a balsa, 4 is a group of high voltage switches, and the late signal data and delay data in the storage means 1a are stored in the transmission/reception control means 1b.
The late signal data and drive element data are transferred to the high-voltage switch group 4 under the control of the transmission delay units 2-1 to 2-2.

Reference numeral 21 denotes an ultrasonic probe having a plurality of transducers 5-1 to 5-n arranged in parallel, and these transducers 5-1 to 5-n are connected to balsas 3-1 to 3-m (m≦n). It is designed to be driven by an excitation signal sent via the high voltage switch group 4.

6-1 to 6-7n are preamplifiers that amplify the ultrasonic echo signals inputted from the transducers 5-1 to 5-* via the high-voltage switch group 4, and 7-1 to 7-771 are reception delay units. The delay data transferred from the transmission/reception control means 1b is input, and a predetermined delay time is given to the output signals of the preamplifiers 6-1 to 6-7)'I, and the signals are sent to the adder 8. .

The output of the adder 8 is input to an echo signal processing circuit 9 controlled by the transmission/reception control means 1b, where the echo signal is subjected to filtering and logarithmic transformation to display means J]
, and the ultrasonic image is displayed on the display means 11.

In the apparatus configured as described above, when transmitting ultrasonic pulses into a living body, the transmission delay unit 2
-1 to 2-m late signal data and delay data for transmission are transferred. Transmission delay unit 2-1 to 2-)? Based on these data, L is applied to the balsers 3-1 to 3-3 to drive them, which are delay time signals for focus and deflection.

The output signals of the balsas 3-1 to 3-1 are input to the vibrators 5-1 to 5-'n via the high-voltage switch group 4, but at this time, the high-voltage switch group 4 is transferred from the transmission/reception control means 1b. Only the channel corresponding to the vibrator to be excited by the drive element data is kept in the on state.

2 Therefore, among the transducers 5-1 to 5-5, the second (r
=1*z*3...n) oscillators 5-x to 5-
The input of the (x+m-1)th oscillator is excited. For example, if r=lQ and m=5, six vibrators from oscillator 5-10 to oscillator 5-15 will be excited. However, m=1.2. :L...n (integer).

In this way, an arbitrary number of transducers set by the driving element data are excited, and ultrasonic pulses are transmitted into the living body.

Ultrasonic echoes from inside the body are transmitted using the same transducer 5-
It is received by x~5-(x10m-1) and converted into an echo signal which is an electric signal, and then passed through the same 40 channels of high-voltage switches as used during transmission to a preamplifier 5-x-6-(
After being input to x+m1) and amplified, the signal is input to reception delay units 7-x to 7-(x+m+1) which are controlled by delay data transferred from the transmission/reception control means 1.

This echo signal is transmitted to reception delay units 7-x to 7-(r0m-1
) delayed for focus and deflection at
Next, adder 8. Echo signal processing circuit 9. [Data set control section] At step 0, the signal processing as described above is sequentially performed, and the display means 11 displays an ultrasound image.

Thereafter, in the same manner, the late signal data, drive element data, and delay data stored in the storage means 1a are read out and controlled by the transmission/reception control means 1b, and the high voltage switch group 4. Transmission/reception delay units 2-1 to 2-n.

7-1 to 7-n, but it is driven at each rate. Transmission/reception delay section 2-1 to 2->m7-1 to 7-n, each element of high voltage switch group 4 is shifted by one element. In addition, the delay time is shifted by a minute time due to the angle Δθ deflection, and a trapezoidal scan as shown in Fig. 6 and a combination of linear scanning and sector scanning are performed, resulting in good real-time performance and wide field of view scanning. In this case, the number of scanning lines by the camera elements 5-1 to 5-nK is the same as in the case of normal linear scanning, but on the other hand, the scanning area is wider than in the case of linear scanning. However, as shown in Fig. 7, linear scanning and sector scanning are temporarily stopped in the central part of the scanning area, only sector scanning is performed, and then linear scanning and sector scanning are started again. By doing so, the scanning line density over the entire scanning plane can be improved.

Control data necessary for performing such scanning may be written in advance into the late signal data, drive element data, and delay data of the storage means 1a. For example, when using 60 transducers and transmitting ultrasonic waves by exciting five transducers at a time, when each of the 28th to 32nd transducers is excited, high voltage switch group 4. Transmission and reception delay units 2-1 to 2
-Butt.

7-1~7-)? L is fixed in correspondence with each vibrator, and each vibrator is excited a required number of times based on different delay data. In other words, as shown in FIG. Control data for stopping sector scanning and performing sector scanning may be written in the rate signal data, drive element data, and delay data.

In addition to the above-described scanning method shown in FIG. 7, it is also possible to temporarily stop linear scanning and sector scanning in any area of the scanning surface, perform sector scanning, and then perform linear scanning and sector scanning again. .

It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and that various modifications can be made within the scope of the invention.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention described in detail above, since linear scanning and sector scanning are performed for each arbitrary number of transducers, it is possible to obtain ultrasonic images with excellent real-time performance and a wide field of view. A sound wave diagnostic device can be provided.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a plan view comparing conventional linear scanning and trapezoidal scanning, Fig. 2 is a plan view when trapezoidal scanning is performed by combining diagonal scanning in two directions, and Fig. 3 is a plan view of linear compound scanning. Plan view when performing trapezoidal scanning, 4th
The figure is a plan view when trapezoidal scanning is performed by combining linear scanning and sector scanning, FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is sector scanning by the apparatus shown in FIG. 5. FIG. 7 is a plan view of the case where trapezoidal scanning is performed by combining the scanning and linear scanning, and FIG. 7 is a plan view of the case where sector scanning is performed at the center of the scanning surface by the apparatus shown in FIG. . 5-1 to 5-n... Vibrator, 11... Display means, 2
1... Ultrasonic glove. Agent: Patent attorney Kensuke Chika (and 1 other person) Figure 3 Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] It is equipped with an ultrasound probe consisting of a plurality of transducers arranged in parallel, each transducer is driven and controlled to transmit and receive ultrasound, and the received echo signals are processed to obtain an ultrasound image on a display means. In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus constructed as described above, an arbitrary number of transducers among the transducers are sequentially shifted and drive controlled, and a predetermined delay amount is given to each transducer of the arbitrary number to achieve linear control. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus characterized in that it scans sectors while scanning.